Poor Man's SUV

Poor Man's SUV

I received the delivery of my Duster last week and guys I must say that I am pretty satisfied with the car. I have already driven around 850 km and the handling and the ground clearance of the car is amazing. I took the car for a trip to Bekal from Bangalore and unfortunately I took the Mysore - Srirangaptanam route which put me in a real tough spot after Jalasur as the road is in a very bad state. I have a three-year-old kid who was in the back seat. Here I must appreciate and applaud the car as the drive was really really smooth and comfortable with the AC doing a great job. The Ground clearance of the car is actually a great advantage on the potholed and muddy roads of the hill terrain. The wide tyres are very surefooted and you can really push the car on steep turns and winding roads. I have a small family of three and the car is very spacious for me including my baggage. So far I was used to driving an A-Star, which is a hatchback and I guess part of my appreciation comes due to this reason.  A warning, though, the car will not respond to your throttling in low RPMs. To feel the true power of the 1.5L, 85 PS car, you need to reach at least 2000 RPMs. Also, the response of the electric steering is sluggish at times and needs a bit of driving experience to enjoy its manoeuvres. I figured out that this will come after you drive this beauty for at least a 1000 km. Oh, by the way, I managed a decent 17-18 kmpl, which would have been better had the roads been fair to me. This is indeed a poor man's SUV and does not disappoint otherwise. I have driven my brothers Ford Endeavour and trust me, that does give you a different experience altogether.